No child will be left without a school place

The school in Clay Lake will take on extra staff with full-time employees rising from 17 to 24 and another six part-timers recruited to take the number up to 39.

Remodelling of the school, which was built in 1954, will also see developments including a new library, staff room and an extended main hall.

Thirty extra pupil places were made available at the school at the start of the September term and the rest will be phased over the next six years.

The £8.4 million investment also covers 60 places created at Spalding Primary School in 2012, 210 places already created at the Spalding Wygate Park School, which opened last year, 140 additional places at Pinchbeck East Primary School and 105 new places at Spalding Monkshouse Primary School.

Pinchbeck East and Monkshouse both welcomed 30 extra pupils in September and the rest of their extra places will be filled as they come on stream over the next few years.

Coun Patricia Bradwell, Lincolnshire County Council’s executive member for children’s services, has promised that no child will be left without a school place as demand for places continues to rise.

She said: “This investment in Spalding schools is important for education in the area.

“It means we can find the necessary school places for children in local schools as there is more demand for places.

“Where there is a need for expanding schools to ensure there are places for children and young people we will support these sort of developments.

“No child will be left without a school place.”

Plans for the re-development of Spalding Parish Church of England Day School have been submitted by the county council to South Holland District Council.

A supporting statement says the expansion will enable the school to “continue to provide and meet the future education needs for the associated catchment area of Spalding”.

• St Norbert’s Roman Catholic Primary in Spalding had 70 extra places available by 2010 and is not included in the latest investment programme.

School was ‘primary of the year’ winner

Spalding Parish Church of England Day School was the first winner of ‘primary school of the year’ in this newspaper’s education awards, launched last year, and is rated ‘good’ by education inspectorate Ofsted.

It is switching from a two-form entry to three-form entry school.

Pupil numbers will rise from this year’s 450 to 480 by September next year and by a further 30 to 510 in September 2017, when all of the proposed new teaching accommodation is expected to have been built.

As well as new buildings, the proposals include an additional pedestrian access to the north-western boundary of the school – to be accessed from the existing cycle path – and there’s likely to be greater emphasis on use of an existing pedestrian access on the southern boundary.

Lincolnshire County Council says those pathways will “alleviate pedestrian congestion at the front of the school” and provide “separate pedestrian accesses away from the main vehicular entrances”.

More staff parking will be created on site and some trees will be removed to accommodate a bigger parking area.